When Trump hatred is Not Enough: Three Takeaways from the last 10 days

A joke told by trial lawyers goes like this: When you have the facts on your side, Hammer on the facts.

When you have the law on your side, hammer on the law. When you don’t have the facts or the law, hammer on the table. And so it is with the Democrats right now. Here are three observations on the last week or so in politics.

Takeaway One: Trump hatred does not trump a policy agenda

Yesterday, the elections in Georgia’s 6th and South Carolina’s 5th congressional districts proved that the actual people voting in these majority districts aren’t ready to part with the Republicans or President Trump so soon. These races were much ballyhooed by the media and Democrat strategists as the bellwether for the upcoming congressional mid-term elections in 2018.

In fact, the Democrats’ candidates in all four congressional elections in the Trump era have gone down in defeat (Montana, Kansas, South Carolina and Georgia). And the Republican in Montana (Greg Gianforte) was actually charged with assaulting a reporter before the election!

In Georgia, young Jon Ostroff, who was showcased as one of a new generation of Democrats that would lead the party to Valhalla, lost to runoff Republican candidate Barbara Handel by a comfortable margin of 5 points. This race is said to have been the most expensive House race ever at a price tag of $200 million.

So what’s the takeaway for Democrats here?They can’t win elections on Trump resistance alone; they have to have a policy agenda too.

What have Democrats done to further their own policy agenda or act like the responsible opposition to the Republican majority in Congress? Nothing. Unless you count urging Americans to resist Trump or try to block his agenda with a trumped up (pun intended) conspiracy about his campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia.

This is not to let Republicans off the hook. They’ve begged America for a Republican President to go with their majority in the House and Senate so they could advance their agenda. Well, they got it so they’d better get moving or they will lose their majority in 2018.

Takeaway Two: What’s the real conspiracy in Washington?

If you take the President’s compulsive tweeting habit out of the equation, why is his administration in the middle of an investigation for colluding with the Russians? There is no one who has said a thing about it being true, including James Comey. However, now we have a situation where a President could be charged by the House for obstruction of justice. Which leaves us with this. How can you obstruct justice when no crime has been committed?

Trump was fully within his Constitutional rights to both tell Comey to back off his investigation of General Flynn AND to fire him. Am I a Constitutional scholar? Nope, but Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School is.

Dershowitz is adamant that the alleged obstruction is nonsense, especially compared to the real crimes and cover up of the Nixon team in the Watergate scandal.

So why are Republicans leaping on the “investigate Trump” bandwagon with the Democrats and the Media? Why aren’t they showing more outrage and resisting the Democrat’s pious talk and investigations? Because they are comfortable with the way things are and Trump’s rocking the Swamp Boat.

No wonder he’s an outspoken Republican critic of Trump. He doesn’t want “The Swamp” drained. He’s part of it. Maybe the Republicans enjoy The Swamp a little too much? It does explain their complicit help of the Democrat’s need to obstruct both the President’s agenda and theirs.

The stench of The Swamp is clinging to Republicans and Democrats alike in Washington I’m afraid. Trump hating only makes this more apparent.

Takeaway three: Why is violence acceptable when Republicans are the targets?

Last week, Congressional Republicans practicing for a softball game were targeted by gunfire from a deranged supporter of Bernie Sanders, James Hodgkinson. Five people were injured and one, Rep. Steve Scalise (R. Louisiana) is still in critical condition.

This incident caused the broadcast media to defend their reportage of harsh rhetoric in Washington. In interview after interview with visibly shaken congressmen who talked about reducing the temperature and tone in politics, they were rebutted by news people who shrugged as if to say, “what else can we do but report?” Thus they defended their cheerleading of liberal attacks and resistance while denying any responsibility.

If this had been a crazed conservative, shooting Democrats, there would be no end to the coverage. As it is, we’ve moved on to the next news cycle and the steady beat of negative Trump coverage. You can count on it.

The craziest of all was Democrat Strategist from New Jersey, James Devine who after the incident tweeted: “We are in a war with selfish, foolish & narcissistic rich people. Why is it a shock when things turn violent? ‪#HuntRepublicanConressmen.”

If you actually look at his Twitter feed, you’ll be shocked by his comments – really.

When you combine Devine’s comments with calls from Democrats to resist at all costs and Hollywood’s unhinged Left, Kathy Griffin’s “beheading” of Trump and the despicable version of Julius Caesar in Central Park, now thankfully finished, which ended with Julius Caesar, made up to look like Donald Trump, being killed, there’s not much left to say is there?

Look, there’s a lot to be done in Washington for the American people and the world has become an even more dangerous place because of eight years of “leading from behind.” It’s time our leaders acted like leaders.